After almost a full year of inactivity and passing on a welterweight title unification opportunity against Shane Mosley, WBC welterweight titleholder tightened his hold on his belt with an eighth-round stoppage victory over former WBO welterweight titlist Carlos Quintana.

Berto and Quintana quickly got to work as soon as the fight started. Berto tried to land his lead right and Quintana hit Berto toward the back of the head, dropping him, but it was ruled a slip. However, Berto was able land some

cleaner shots to take the opening stanza. Round two started with Quintana landing a nice left hand that got the attention of Berto and the crowd. Berto continued to try and apply pressure but Quintana was able to avoid some of his set-ups for body shots with a sneaky right jab, which resulted in a solid round for the Puerto Rican.

Pressure was the key for Berto in rounds three and four. In round three, he was able to trap Quintana along the ropes for the first time and started to land effective power shots to the body. Quintana lost a point for hitting Berto behind the head for the second time. Round four was even better for Berto as he was able to really put power shots together. He pinned Quintana along the ropes for a second time and was able to explode with some combinations.

Round five saw Quintana land a nice right uppercut, but it became Berto’s round when he landed some clean shots in exchange, an unorthodox right hand counter (while he absorbed a Quintana right hook), which stunned Quintana for the first time in the fight. Berto unleashed some more power punches as he applied pressure.

A cut over the right eye of Quintana opened up at the end of round six, due to the continued pressure of Berto, who surprisingly stayed away from going downstairs on his challenger. Round seven was actually a solid one for Quintana to try getting back into the fight; however, Berto jumped on him in the eighth round and connected with clean flurries. Quintana was unable to avoid the pressure and the pipes burst on him as he was trapped in the corner and was blasted with clean power shots upstairs. As Quintana tried to run away and clear his head, referee Tommy Kimmons was forced to stop the fight after Berto landed a devastating straight right hand.

With the victory, Berto lifts his record to 26-0 (20), while Quintana falls to 27-3 (21).

Berto revealed that he had injured his left bicep during the early part of the fight. He also claimed that he feels he is just about ready to fight any of the elite fighters in the welterweight division. Time will tell about both his injury and just where Berto, still a titleholder, stands in relation to those elite names.

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In the co-feature, Celestino Caballero, 34-2 (23), started to make his claim for future featherweight mega-fights against the division’s bigger names by pounding on Indonesian Daud Yordan, 25-1 (19), for the entire course of the fight.

Caballero was his usual active self as the fight started. He continued to peek at Yordan with his long left jab and started to lay the groundwork of what would be a sick display of whipping power body shots. As the first round came to a close, Caballero started to incorporate shoulder rolls and some counter shots when Yordan started to actually throw some punches in return. These moves were attributes of the classic Mayweather style of defense, clearly a result of the work that Caballero has been doing with Jeff Mayweather.

This paid off for Caballero at the close of the second round when “Pelechin” avoided a return from Yordan with a counter right upper cut that floored the Indonesian. As round three began, Yordan started to try and apply pressure; however Caballero continued to control the pace of the action with his thudding body shots. Yordan was forced to cover up due to the constant offensive output of Caballero, who, as a result, continued to his course of action throughout both rounds four and five.

Round six started with Yordan able to land his first left hook return, which Caballero was able to handle with ease. Caballero continued to establish his stick and body work to control and pound on Yordan for the remainder of the fight. Yordan’s nose started to leak at the end of the sixth and continued to flow into the seventh.

The pattern of the fight hardly changed, even into the championship rounds, and the biggest excitement came in the final round when Yordan actually caught Caballero a bit too relaxed and, with a burst of energy, tried to make a miracle occur. The veteran Caballero patiently leaned back on the ropes and was able to evade the barrage until he regained his composure, resuming his activity in order to close the show. Although it may have been a small crowd in Florida, they were well aware of where Caballero is at in the division and his future, as they started to chant the WBO champion’s name, “JuanMa.”

Scores for the fight were 119-108 (twice) and 120-107, all in favor of Caballero. It’s clear that, at the age of 33, Caballero is ready to take on the big names at 126. However, it will be interesting to see what occurs when his low hands and softer-yet-constant action is countered by the sharper and more powerful shots from Lopez or Yuriorkis Gamboa.